Destruction by Natural Enemies 31 



our native birds. But that they do not confine 

 themselves to sparrows there is plenty of evi- 

 dence. In the village of Meriden, New Hamp- 

 shire, where we make special efforts to attract 

 birds by feeding them in winter, shrikes cause 

 us a lot of trouble. One winter we fed great 

 numbers of pine grosbeaks. They are naturally 

 fearless birds and became very tame under 

 kindly treatment. The shrikes were so bold 

 that they would attack the grosbeaks under our 

 very noses. A neighbor, Mr. Lewis Stickney, 

 who fed a large flock of birds, saw a shrike kill 

 two in his garden. One of these was feeding 

 on the window-sill under the roof of the piazza. 

 Though the shrike was possibly an inch and a half 

 the longer of the two, it could hardly have been 

 so heavy as the plump, well-fed grosbeak, yet 

 the butcher bird actually carried off its victim. 

 After carrying it for a few feet he dropped it in 

 the snow, picked it up, dropped it again, and 

 then perhaps getting a firmer grip, carried it 

 for fully four hundred feet before disappearing. 

 I have been obliged to shoot several shrikes in 

 my own garden where they come for the chicka- 

 dees and other small birds which we always 

 have in numbers. I once saw a shrike pursue 

 a chickadee from point to point in the bushes 

 until the little titmouse lost his head and flew 



